The Trees are My Grandparents

The Amazon rainforest has been home to the Achuar people of Ecuador for thousands of years. Skilled hunters and fishermen, they have a spiritual connection with nature and consider themselves the forest's greatest protectors.

Life is governed by their ancestors, with family history passed down orally from generation to generation. Yet traditions are being undermined as the young are tempted away by modernity, while their fragile ecosystem faces man-made destruction.

But now, the same technological developments so often deemed a threat to traditional ways of life, have offered the Achuar people, and other remote tribal people, the opportunity to preserve their legacy and fight back against the eradication of their histories.

A team from the global genealogy website MyHeritage has been spending time with groups like the Achuar in an attempt to preserve their family heritage.

Entsakua Yunkar, shaman of the Achuar Sharamentsa community in Ecuador, said the project was helping to ease his fears that "history can disappear" very quickly.

"I feel like the father of this community," Yunkar said. "If I don't exist here, this community can't have power and be successful. I feel that I give positive energy to the communities and families here.

"The big trees are my grandparents. They speak to me. I feel very sad when I think about what will happen in a long time. The world is changing. Our goal is to protect this area and our culture so it will be alive for many years."

The very existence of tribal communities around the world is threatened by a whole host of factors. Imported diseases, such as influenza, measles and chickenpox, can prove deadly when tribes people have not had the chance to develop any immunity, according to Survival International, the global charity for tribal people's rights.

Deforestation and climate change are also huge threats, while technology and modernity risk destroying communities by luring younger members away to urban regions.

The genealogy project is the brainchild of Golan Levi, a qualified architect who earlier in his career spent years creating giant sculptures with tribes around the world.

"I heard fascinating stories [during his time as an architect]," he said. "They had a history of oral tradition, but they didn't have a means to preserve their heritage.

"The oral tradition keeps the essence of their communities but they're losing the pieces. They might know the meaning behind a ceremony but they wouldn't be able to tell you the name of their great great grandparents.

"When I started working at MyHeritage I realized it was the perfect fit to document those stories."

The group's first project was with the Himba people of Namibia in 2015, with subsequent delegations visiting the Nenets in Siberia, the Emberá, Ngäbe, Naso and Guna in Panama, and several tribes in Papua New Guinea.

"Everything varies from tribe to tribe … but family and how they collaborate with each other is key," said Levi.

He explains the groups have initially been met with skepticism, but their willingness to muck in breaks down barriers with the tribes people, who eventually agree to be photographed, filmed and interviewed. "It takes time to build trust," he adds. "We live as they live in order to understand how they view the world and this is something they greatly appreciate."

Franklin Wasump, an Achuar who hails from the Wayusentsa community, echoed Entsakua Yunkar's concerns about his culture disappearing.

"In many years the Achuar culture may disappear, as happened with other nationalities, because there are many young people that don't want to preserve the culture," he said. "I am sad because although today it is still preserved, in the future it might not.

"It is the responsibility of the father to teach, to talk to the young children in order not to lose the culture."

Yampia Santi, an Achuar leader from the Wayusentsa community, said he hoped the project would raise awareness. "The Achuar tribe will be around for many more generations, which is why we ask you tell your friends about the rainforest and the Achuar people who live there."

This story originally appeared in The Guardian (April 2020).

Divination and Adapting to an Evolutionary Pandemic

Divination is the art of gaining insight into a question or situation by the interpretation of signs or omens. The goal of shamanic divination is to encourage well-being by helping a person live in harmony with the universe around them. One of the best known systems of divination is the I Ching, or Book of Changes. For some 3,000 years, people have turned to the I Ching to help them uncover the meaning of their experience and to bring their actions into harmony with their underlying purpose. Consulting the I Ching is one of the best ways I know of to restore harmony wherever there is disharmony.

I consulted the I Ching today in order to gain some insight into the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading rapidly through much of the world. When I consulted the I Ching regarding the hexagram that best describes the pandemic, I received Hexagram 51, "The Arousing (Quickening, Shock, Thunder)." This hexagram consists of a doubling of the trigram Chen (the Arousing Thunder). Thunder rolls over Thunder, forming a state of Quickening. This hexagram symbolizes the unsettling events of fate that arouse us when we cling to belief or behavioral patterns that no longer support our growth. According to the I Ching, "Thunder repeated is the image of Shock. Thus in fear and trembling, the superior man sets his life in order and examines himself." The first thunder denotes fear and trembling, the second denotes shaping and exploring.

Just as the deep, reverberating sound of rolling thunder jolts the senses, so the universe may use a shocking turn of events to arouse us when we have gone astray. To weather the storm, we must retain our inner balance and utilize available energy in a sincere effort to set our life in order. Success depends on our willingness to plow old habits into the soil in order to cultivate new patterns that enhance our natural growth. If we disregard this imperative and persist in outmoded ways, we will experience repeated shock. Innovative change, on the other hand, will revitalize our life and precipitate renewed growth and creativity.

The process of adapting to COVID-19 is just beginning. Over time, the impact of the novel coronavirus may be so sweeping that it alters human rituals and behaviors that have evolved over millennia. This could change everything from the way we conduct our economy to our greeting and grieving rituals. Our earthly reality is in a state of Quickening that demands that the human species build our evolutionary powers of adapting on a scale equal to the magnitude we've seen in the coronavirus pandemic. As humans, we are being asked to go within and search our hearts in order to change those patterns of thought and behavior that work against us. It is necessary to still the mind and quiet the emotions so that inner knowing and intuition can emerge into our consciousness. Personal isolation and contemplation help us gain deeper insight and clarity of mind.

The shock waves that we are feeling indicate that usable energy is now available to change those patterns that inhibit our growth and create disharmony. When mankind chooses to live out of harmony with nature, nature too becomes inharmonious. That is what has happened in this case, and when this lack of harmony takes place, everything falls out of balance. This virus is the most recent example of this lack of balance. Global upheaval occurs when imbalances need to be corrected.

A global crisis often spawns innovation and cooperation. One of the wonderful things that happens during a natural disaster is that people cooperate with each other. That's how humans have always evolved in harsh conditions. This is a moment for us to prove our humanity, not run away from it. So, let us open our hearts to one another and let this be our finest hour. This turning point in human evolution still has much more to come. To gain insight into your path ahead, consult the I Ching.